People can access a wide variety of services and functions through telecommunications systems. A subscriber can receive, send, and forward voice messages, faxes, e-mail, and data, and can remotely manage many business and personal functions.
This new technology has important implications for teleworking. In teleworking, a teleworker performs work functions from a remote location. In many cases, a teleworker can perform functions identical to those performed by her colleague in the office. Teleworking can be loosely defined as workers performing work functions remotely through a telecommunications system.
Teleworking offers workers unprecedented flexibility and convenience for workers. It also provides opportunities for people who have traditionally been excluded from the work force or who have been able to participate on a limited basis only. It can remove geographical barriers, better integrate women and the disabled into the work force, and provide retraining and rehabilitation programs for the institutionalized.
Most advanced features are implemented and controlled through a control channel, which requires the user to have a telephone system, typically ISDN, that provides a separate channel for the control signal. Unfortunately, many subscribers do not have ISDN telephones or ISDN lines. ISDN telephones and lines are particularly rare in private homes, locations where teleworking can make the biggest difference. What is needed is a better way to integrate ordinary subscribers into teleworking.